The art of work

Thai con­tem­po­rary vis­ual artist Kawita Vatana­jyankur is tak­ing view­ers to ex­plore ev­ery­day and do­mes­tic work of Thai women through the video art ex­hi­bi­tion, “Tools”, which is run­ning at The Jam Fac­tory un­til Jan 10.

It shows that, for many, daily chores aren’t al­ways as­sisted by elec­tronic con­trap­tions or white goods but are time-con­sum­ing, ex­haust­ing and of­ten the task of women.

The videos’ happy, day-glow colours, dark hu­mour and un­der­cur­rents of violence, how­ever, bring a con­tem­po­rary cur­rency to the his­tor­i­cal tra­jec­tory of fem­i­nist art. It is telling that she de­scribes her per­for­mances as “med­i­ta­tion pos­tures” when such gru­elling tests of re­silience and fear are quite the op­po­site of what we might think of as Zen.

But, for Vatana­jyankur, ex­treme phys­i­cal en­durance of­fers a way to free her­self from her mind — a mech­a­nism to lose her sense of be­ing. This de­lib­er­ate ob­jec­ti­fi­ca­tion, she says, turns her body into sculp­ture.

The Jam Fac­tory is on Charoen Nakhon Road and opens daily from 11am- 8pm. Call 02-861-0955.